RoboScreen choreography animation and tool development for high profile venues including Royal Caribbean state-of-the-art cruise ships and megastar concerts.
Indie game and 4D (AR) experience creation and related tool development in Unity3D. Evaluation and execution of Unity3D-related workflows and pipeline integration in a growing production environment.
15+ years in the fields of games and visual effects spanning a number of studios both in Japan and the US involving shot work, artist tool and pipeline development. Additionally involved in Web development using LAMP and Django including Twitter & Facebook apps as well as mobile app development for both iOS & Android.
Conversational fluency in Japanese.
Companies:
andyRobot - The Hohng Company - DAQRI - Digital Domain - R&H - Cinesite - Tippett - PDI - Square - AsylumFX - Hydraulx - SEGA - Alias|Wavefront
Personal:
music production - languages (Japanese, Assyrian, Arabic, Italian) - mobile app development - sports (soccer, frisbee)
Work History
Senior Pipeline Technical Director
Lucasfilm
November 2020 - Present
San Francisco
technical director
Atomic Fiction
February 2018 - May 2018
technical director
Atomic Fiction
October 2017 - November 2017
Kelvin Optical
May 2016 - June 2017
Pipeline Technician, FX TD
Kelvin Optical (c/o Bad Robot)
October 2015 - June 2016
Santa Monica, CA
Facility pipeline development and occasional FX shot work.
Head of Development and Infrastructure
andyRobot
August 2014 - October 2015
Santa Monica, CA
Technical leadership partner in core team driving sales and development of Robot Animator® toolset for Autodesk® Maya® for KUKA, ABB and Yaskawa robots. Head of development of the core software product central to the business, business strategy/planning, field support, infrastructure management and website development/maintenance.
Game Developer & Integrator
The Hohng Company
August 2014 - August 2015
Greater Los Angeles Area
Develop and publish indie game series using the Unity3D real-time game engine including code development and maintenance in C#, music recording and production, graphics manipulation in Photoshop and game play consultation.
Senior Designer, Client Solutions Group
Daqri
January 2014 - August 2014
Downtown LA
4D (Augmented Reality) experience creation for both internal and client projects, primarily using Unity3D and the DAQRI Core Behavior toolset. Feature prototyping and tool development using C# in Unity3D for future system releases. Evaluation of Unity3D integration into a growing production environment and related pipeline development including scripted tools for the production team.
Senior Pipeline / FX Technical Director
Digital Domain
August 2003 - July 2013
Venice, CA
Performed various tasks on multiple projects over a 10 year period including tours of duty in both the FX and pipeline departments. Please refer to the project descriptions below for details.
President
Shuri-Ken Creative Services, Inc.
January 2008 - January 2010
Santa Monica, CA
A technology consulting company providing services in the areas of visual effects for film and video, web development and mobile device content development.
Technical Director
Moving Pixels
March 2008 - May 2008
Santa Monica, CA
Developed particle-based systems for both falling snow and snow interacting with cars in Maya. Rendered with Maya's Hardware Render Buffer for Flame artist usage.
Also helped integrate legacy Maya tools into the shop's pipeline using MEL.
Technical Director
Hydraulx
July 2007 - August 2007
Santa Monica, CA
Developed and executed FX and lighting tasks for a car commercial in Maya and Mental Ray. Also helped streamline the pipeline.
Technical Director
Rhythm & Hues Studios
February 2006 - April 2006
Playa Del Rey, CA
Worked on the FX team using Houdini and R&H's proprietary volume renderer.
Technical Director
Asylum FX
March 2005 - May 2005
Santa Monica, CA
Worked on the lighting team using Maya and RenderMan.
Technical Director
Cinesite
January 2003 - April 2003
Hollywood, CA
Worked on the FX team using Maya and RenderMan.
FX Artist
Tippett Studio
August 2002 - January 2003
Berkeley, CA
Worked on the FX team using Maya and RenderMan.
FX Artist
Square Pictures
December 2000 - August 2001
Honolulu, HI
Worked on the FX team using Maya and RenderMan.
FX Animator/Developer
DreamWorks Animation
March 1999 - November 2000
Palo Alto, CA
Worked as an FX artist and lighter in both the CAFE and features groups using Maya and PDI proprietary tools. Projects include Shrek, BestBuy Christmas & SEGA DreamCast commercials. Work included animation and rendering of pixie dust, normal dust, crumbling buildings, and development of various Maya and proprietary API tools.
Application Engineer
Alias|wavefront
December 1995 - January 1999
San Francisco Bay Area
Product specialist for Maya and PowerAnimator
- Demos, support, training
- Custom MEL tools development for customers
- English/Japanese liason tasks
- Implementation and maintenance of office web page
Technical Developer
SEGA Japan
March 1994 - December 1995
Tokyo, Japan
- Developed games software tools
- Created CG for TV commercials & amusement park rides using Softimage
- Occasionally acted as liason between English & Japanese speakers